What was the event of Michael Phelps' first World Championship gold medal?

Michael Phelps’ first World Championship gold medal came in the 200m butterfly. He won the event at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, beginning a career that would eventually produce 15 individual World Championship titles.

Phelps was only 16 when he won that first world title. He had already made the 200m butterfly his breakthrough event, setting a world record in the event at the 2001 U.S. trials. In Fukuoka, he defeated the field and set another world record, touching in 1:54.58.

The result was significant beyond the medal itself. Phelps had competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics at age 15 but had not won a medal there. The 2001 victory established him as a major international swimmer and previewed his long dominance in butterfly events. Readers sometimes confuse this with his first Olympic gold, which came in the 2004 Athens Games; his first World Championship gold arrived three years earlier, in the 200m butterfly.